page_title: Maritime history of the Channel Islands
section_title: Advantages enjoyed by the Islands
hierarchical_section_title: Maritime history of the Channel Islands / Advantages enjoyed by the Islands
caption_attribution_description: Original Reworked version of Image:Alderney_aerial.jpg by Marcela Original-Description: (Uploaded by User:Smb1001) An aerial shot of the islands of Alderney (centre) and Burhou (upper right) in the Channel Islands. I took the image on Sunday August 21, 2005 during a commercial flight between London Stansted and La Rochelle.
context_page_description: The Channel Islands comprise a group of islands off the coast of France. The largest island is Jersey, followed by Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and a number of smaller islands, islets and rocky outcrops. The islands were separated from mainland Europe with rising sea levels in the Neolithic period, thereafter maritime activity commenced.
  Needing to trade, the Islands were innovative and changed with times, building up skills, earning money and investing capital in maritime businesses.
context_section_description: There were a number of advantages to maritime trade:
  The physical location of the Channel Islands, where trade from the west of Europe and the Americas passed close by.
  The requirement for locals, whose only opportunities were agriculture and maritime related, led to many becoming skilled mariners, firstly as fisherman then as traders.
  Trading concessions with England.
  The dual language of French with English spoken by the better educated Islanders.
  The skills needed to navigate the dangerous local waters kept many foreign sailors from competing.
  The neutrality of the Islands from 1480 to 1700 and their free ports.
  The presence of the Royal Navy to protect trade.
  A fierce determination to remain independent from England and to establish and then maintain the right of self-government, leading to the opportunities to be entrepreneurial.
  The law, such as, for a period of time, the right not to be impressed into the Royal Navy, if a man served in the local Island militias and as every man had to be in the militia, local sailors might avoid the forced service that afflicted so many English ports.
  St Peter Port harbour, with its outer anchorage, protected from the prevailing Westerlies and the ability to sail north or south attracted most of the trade. St Helier harbour, exposed to the South, could see ships trapped in port.
  Local shipping merchants opened offices in London, along the south coast of England and in overseas countries to boost trade.
  Banking from 1721 and Insurance offices were opened in the Islands to serve the shipping merchants.
caption: Alderney aerial view
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